MODERN OBJECTIVE

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 195, 16 July 1930, Page 7

MODERN OBJECTIVE

IN EDUCATION OF TO-DAY. The standing committee of the New Zealand Federation of Teachers met at AVellington on Saturday to consider certain important data forwarded for discussion by the president of the federation. (Mr F. Milner, C.M.G.). There were present: Mr F. Martjn Renner (chairman). Miss Magill, Messrs Ashridge, Jones, James, Farquhar, Jackson and Wilson. After its deliberations, the standing committee decided to issue the following statement not only to all members of the federation but to all who are interested in and concerned with education. In her presidential address at the annual meeting of the National Union of Teachers at Brunnermouth last April, Mrs Manning took for her subject, “What do we conceive to be the Function and the Aim of the New Schools and new Methods in Teaching?” The whole address is too long to print in full, but the following paragraph sums up the general objective verv well indeed.

“To seize upon the restlessness, the venturesomenessj the budding intellectual powers, the warm generosities and loyalties which make the young adolescent so lovable, so interesting, yet such a problem—to harness these by a thousand ingenious devices to the service of that little community which is the school; to take the young, growing, changing body, and by constant supervision in the school and in the playing held guide it along the direction it is to go if it is to attain to the perfectly balanced harmony of the adult body; to substitute principle for impulse, controlled emotion for. instinct: to encourage and stimulate along the path of. what the child can do and not what the school or teacher thinks he ought to be able to do —these are the real objectives of the new schools.” The Federation of New .Zealand Teachers considers that education is intimately connected with most of the great problems that are exercising the people of this country to-day—dhe Defence question, the financial stringency, and the economic conditions. Increased production it is confidently stated will solve the financial and economic problems; and it is to education of the modern typo and of the right type that the country is looking to obtain that increased production. The Minister in his various addresses to members has convinced them that he has that object in view and the federation hopes that he will be given every assistance in carrying out his ideas. The Mother Country in spite of her huge burden of taxation has not only not reduced the education vote but has actually increased it for the simple reason that fihe recognises what an injustice would be done to those children who would otherwise be deprived of the benefits of education in a time of financial stringency. The plain fact of the matter is that England has increased her education vote hy £3,000,000 from 41i millions (1929) to 464 millions (1930). Simultaneously local education authorities have increased this expenditure from £77 millions to £794 millions, making a grand total of £126 millions spent on education by England and. Wales in 1930. . , • In addition to this England and Wales are making every preparation for the time when every adolescent shall be taught in schools in no way inferior to the present secondary schools. Sir Charles Trevelyan, Minister for Education, stated in the House of Commons in May of this year, that 261 out of the total of 317 local educational authorities had sub-

mitted schemes of organisation to meet the increased roll contingent on raising the school leaving age to 15. Of these, 225 were fully complete. Of the balance of 56 educational authorities a largo number were making preparations. He stated that 100 new schools had been built since October, 1929, and 350 enlargements completed. _ A great forward movement in education is going on in every part of the country. In other directions too, Sir Charles Trevelvan has been active —notably in the reduction of the size of classes. Addressing the annual conference of. teachers in Bournemouth, in April, 1930, he said: —“To-day, there are still ten thousand classes in England of over fifty pupils. I want these pupils to have a better chance. These large classes cheat the child and rack the teacher, and from what I have seen in various places, I say it is time England stopped it. I went to Vienna a little while ago. There I found that though poverty-stricken after the. war, thev had got their classes down in all elementary schools to thirty. I should he only too glad to have too many teachers in the next few years, because it would make my task of asking local authorities to bring the number in the classes down far easier than it is at present. I want education to remain as far as possible a non-partisian business. There is an improved feeling in the country with regard to education. I believe education will go bounding forward, and that the whole of the people will soon be demanding, for their children a standard of education which only a part of them has hitherto demanded. We are on the verge of a great time which is going to matter most of all to vou teachers, and I ask you in the=e things not to be too timid, hut to he hold.” The report of the English Board of Education for the year ended December 31st. 1929, indicates what has been accomplished in order to realise the more modern type of education. The Hadow report has been completely affirmed and a nation-wide reorganisation of schools in accordance with that report lias been begun—a programme of extraordinary magnitude and yet carried out with every confidence, in spite of the pressing financial anxietj. The number of school classes with more than 50 pupils has been reduced from 16,686 to 10,883. Over 1000 additional trainees have been admitted in the training colleges in anticipation of their immediate expansion. Plans for 15.000 new free places in secondary schools -have been approved and 100 additional State scholarships established. Consolidation' of schools in rural areas has been affirmed as well as the principle that all schools should , have adequate playing fields, while existing •school architecture has been . thrown into the melting-pot and in its place the open-air design has been approved. A perusal of the above will show that our own Minister has already begun to work on the linos set out in the above-mentioned classes, etc. If New Zealand’s progress along the right road of education is to continue unhindered and if she is expected to come abreast with modern education, the education vote must not be reduced. The Minister for Education should be given every chance to carry his projects into effect. Not to give him that chance or to hamper him by a reduction in the vote would be unfair not only to liim but, more important still, to the children of New Zealand.